Three decades of famous hat-trick and ruthless decimation by Indians
31st October is famous date in Indian history. It on this day in 1984, Indira Gandhi was brutally assassinated by her own bodyguards. 31st October is the birthday of first home minister of India, the IRON MAN Vallabhbhai Patel.
But Indian Cricket enthusiasts remember this day for another reason. Thirty years back in 1987, on this day India registered one of its most forceful and comprehensive ODI victory.
It was a group match of Reliance World Cup (4th ICC Cricket World Cup) between India and New Zealand played at Nagpur on 31st October 1987, which India won by nine wickets. The match was immortalized, as first time an Indian claimed a hat trick in ODI. It was pace bowler
Because only then, India would have better run rate than Australia.
Scoring 221 runs in 42 Overs three decades back was no simple task and the onus was on opening pair of Sunil Gavaskar and Srikkanth. Gavaskar had already played his last Test for India in March 1987 and he had announced that World Cup would be his last outing for India. The man with highest number of Test centuries (34) at that time had a pain point of not having a single three figure innings in ODI. His rendezvous with ODI was better contrasted by his infamous innings of 36 runs in 60 Overs in 1975 World Cup.
The bad news however was that Gavaskar was not well. He was suffering with high grade fever. Indian fans were sceptical. As soon as Indian innings started though, it was a carnage right from the word go. Srikkanth and Gavaskar gave kiwi bowlers unprecedented charge. Gavaskar was even more ferocious than his Srikkanth, who himself was powerful striker. Both were literally toying with bowling attack. I still remember those effortless sixes Gavaskar hit of Chatfield over mid-wicket. Chatfield was key bowler for New Zealand, but he went for some forty runs in four